LOCATION DETAILS: Sighting location was near an area called Wolf Park near Hotchkiss.

NEAREST TOWN: Hotchkiss, CO

NEAREST ROAD: CO 92

OBSERVED: In the fall of 1994 I was hunting deer with friends north of Hotchkiss, CO. This area was called Wolf Park. I had never hunted this area before but my friend had grown up in the area. It was the September muzzleloading hunt which runs from the second to the third weekend of the month. We had drove in quite a ways. We hunted the morning and I had seen nothing.

About 9 or 10 am I had spotted a bear up higher so I figured we had better move to a new location, for the bear may have spooked any deer in the area. We walked down the trail to our truck and left the area. The time from seeing the bear until we left was about 20 minutes. The bear was heading north-east. We drove south-west down the mountain about 30 to 45 minutes. When we came around the corner of the road, it overlooked Wolf Park and a hill on the south side.

My friend and I saw them at the same time. He slammed on the brakes and we bailed from the truck. We both started glassing 2 of the creatures standing in an opening. They turned and started looking at us. That amazed me because of the distance. It was quite a distance away. With the naked eye you could make out the size of the creatures, which - between that and the fact that they were standing up - made us stop. We looked at them about 3 to 5 minutes and then 3 small ones walked out of the draw the parents had come from. They were about half the size of the parents.

The creatures were jet black and you could see the arms and legs, torso and head. They started moving back to cover when a white pick-up came out on the road below us which was about 75 to 100 yards from where the largest one was. The truck came to an quick stop for 10 to 15 seconds, and then took off like a bat out of hell. The creatures disappeared into the brush.

We drove to the spot we had seen them and looked at where they had gone. The slope was pretty steep and real loose. The dirt was so loose you could see that with each step they slid so I could not find a real good print. I had to jump in order to reach from one step to the other. The brush was thick in this draw were they had gone so we did not go looking for them. We left and went home.

We talked about it for a week or two. It had gotten us excited but we never told anybody about this. I tried to bring it up one time a few years ago in conversation to my friend but he avoided the topic. The only other person I have told is my wife till now.

OTHER WITNESSES: I had two friends with me. We were driving.

OTHER STORIES: None. My friend who grew up in the area never heard anything either.

TIME AND CONDITIONS: Partly cloudy, between 10 and 11 am.

ENVIRONMENT: The area was pinon pine and scrub oak anywhere from 5 to 20 feet high.

Follow-up investigation report:

Two of the three witnesses were interviewed.

Witness 1 is an experienced hunter and a member of the military. He said the bigfoot family was at least 600 to 800 yards away, across a draw and downslope from his position.

"The first one we saw I have to say was a male. It was the biggest of the bunch, standing out there about a quarter of the way on top of the dirt slide or old tailings. He was looking at us, which kind of caught us off guard. Then we saw another, smaller one, which I imagine was a female. It came out of the brush about 10 or 15 feet. After a few minutes, the male started moving up the hill. Then two or three young ones came up out of the draw."

He said there was "no question" in his mind about what they were seeing.

"I've hunted for years and I've seen about every animal you can see. When I jumped out of the truck I knew what I was looking at. I was ready to do a jig in the road, I was so excited."

Soon thereafter, he said, a pickup appeared on a road below the witness and slid to a stop. He speculated that the driver would only have been able to see the male as the female and the young were downslope in the draw.

"He slammed on his brakes, stopped for about five seconds, then took off like a bat out of hell. He must have been 50 yards away and had to have seen it from about the waist up."

The witness said when they drove down to where they saw the bigfoot family, they found large tracks on the hillside that dwarfed his size 10 foot.

"They had to be at least a half a foot longer than mine. They were in loose dirt and they slid. I had to jump from each of his steps."

Since publishing this report, a second witness was also interviewed. He said that he and his wife also got a chance to look at the creatures through binoculars. Witness 2 said he only saw 3 individuals, not 5.

"They were upright and their arms hung to their sides. They never went on all fours. They walked upright and were very skilled. They went down a hill - it was very very steep and made of loose shale and adobe dirt. Their tracks were slide marks. They covered that bald face probably from the top to bottom and did it at pretty good clip."

They covered 500- 600 yards walking at a good pacethe strides were real long."

Witness 2 said he identified two apparent adults and 1 adolescent. Because of the distance, he was unable to discern facial characteristics but clearly identified a large head and wide shoulders on an upright body."

"The thing is, we all agree on is what we saw. There were no trees, no obstruction of view. We were up on a high ridge overlooking this. There was nothing between us. The contrast between them and greyish brown dirt was high."

Archery and muzzleloader season coincide in Colorado. Primitive arms hunters must wear blaze orange; archers do not. The witness said in his opinion it was highly unlikely that the three figures he saw were archers in full camoflage.

"It would have had to been three men in gorilla suits. But we didn't see anyone else up there. The only reason we were down there is we weren't finding much luck up high on deer. So went down low, in winter that's when we hunt."

One of the most puzzling things about this report for me has been the vegetation in the sighting location. The incident occured at on a lower elevation slope where the habitat transitions to an arid, desert-like shrub and sage landscape. However, conifer and aspen forest characterize the top of the mesa above the sighting location.

Witness 2 speculated that the presence of hunters at higher elevations may have caused this family group to head downslope, where they came out into the open and were spotted.

"I was a complete non believer. I thought - this is a wives tale, this thing doesnít exist. Then I was shown otherwiseI do believe itís a missing piece of the puzzle we donít have."